First day of online gambling in New Jersey
News on 23 Nov 2013
News on 23 Nov 2013
Geolocation glitches appeared to be the most common issues on the first night of New Jersey’s trial period of online gambling Thursday, with some operators reporting complaints by legitimate New Jersey punters that despite being within the state they had been blocked, and others reporting successful blocking of players outside the Garden State perimeter who took a chance on being accepted.
New Jersey’s Internet gambling law requires that gamblers be present within the state.
One service provider said that geolocation measures deployed by a casino customer had blocked 23 out-of-state attempts to register.
Lisa Spengler, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, said regulators are “not overly concerned” with geolocation issues after the first night, which had been anticipated and would be worked out over the remaining days of the trial period.
“It is better to have instances of people in New Jersey being blocked, than instances of people being able to gamble from outside of New Jersey,” she said.
Spengler said the problems some users reported “at this point seem to be routine and not evidence of any system-wide issues.”
Casino executives and their online partners were quoted in various media reports as saying that adjustments are being made and systems are under continuous stress-testing as so far minor glitches with geolocation and credit card hassles were identified and sorted out.
Joe Lupo, a senior Borgata executive, said: “We are using the soft launch for exactly what it was intended for, to test and adjust.”
Most geolocation contractors said that their product was in general working as intended, and that individual casino operators could decide on where geolocation boundary parameters should be set.
Contractors are maintaining close liaison with their casino clients and monitoring developments carefully.
The information site US Poker.com reported that New Jersey internet gaming operators are using a different form of geolocation software than that deployed in Nevada.
New Jersey is in most cases using the Wi-fi Positioning System, which is used where GPS is inadequate due to various causes including multipath and signal blockage indoors.
US Poker tested the technology from Nevada and reports that players are first required to download a GeoComply plug-in before they can play. The site testers complied with directions and were immediately rejected as being out-of-state.
Trying a more devious approach, US Poker then made another attempt from a VPN with a New Jersey address, but that too was identified and rejected by the geolocation software.
